Lenten Friday 1: The Lord is my Advocate

 Often, when people think of advocacy, they think of marching on the plaza with picket signs on their hands. They don’t generally think of calling up a land lady and saying “Hey, give my girl an apartment, because she’s worth it.”

She really is worth it. She’s worth the chance this world isn’t giving her. The moms I work with are probably some of the most beautiful people I have ever met and every time we talk I have to take a ten minute break, cry, and pray for them. When a mom is rejected from multiple apartments, because she’s on welfare, apartment skipped in her old state and has domestic abuse stamped in her background, that’s when I get a little pissed. No one ever stops to consider the fact that maybe she was apartment skipping, because she was running from the Baby Daddy, and now needs a little Welfare, because she’s been so busy running that she forgot what her feet feel like, much less what it feels like to stand up on them. She’s vulnerable. Sadly, vulnerable people are the ones that are easy to abuse. They have nothing, so somehow some people think that it’s okay to take the little they have and run away with it. That’s not right. I could really say some unsanctified words about this.

When a girl who has the world in the palm of her hand ends up with the wrong guy at the right time, her dreams come crashing to the ground and shatter. Shatter. If anyone has seen a shattered glass they know it’s easier to sweep the pieces in the dust pan and throw them away, than to put them on the table and try to glue the glass back together. Who’s got time for that?

No one sees that this girl has a college degree. They don’t see that she has a baby to feed and she does feed, sacrificing her everything to provide. They don’t see the love she has for others who have a harder life than she. No one sees the beautiful soul that she owns. No one.

Hence, that little girl who once was golden is now running the streets, looking for a home, with no hope of anywhere to go. She’s on welfare. She’s broke. Domestic abuse case? Now no one’s got time to mess with that. I could get so mad and scream at the inhumanity I see when a girl goes the county for reliable housing and instead send her to a crook, who will take that deposit and shut her out. How many times? 1? 3? 5? 9 and more to come. This is what I call injustice.

Typical day: I call a land lady. I hang up the phone with a desperate, crippled, beautiful gem of a girl, and dial the office number for the apartment she is hoping to rent.

“Hello,” the other end sweetly calls out.

“Hi, this is _____with_____________. ”

She says she’s been expecting my call. She has some questions.

I bet she does.

She asks about the girl’s history. She asks about the Welfare. She asks about the domestic abuse. She needs someone that could speak for this girl.

I speak for her. I advocated. I say this girl is a girl that is trying. She is striving and wants to thrive. She’s got a baby, and she loves him. She has a degree and she has dreams that someday she could use it to change the world. To keep little girls from becoming like her: a welfare case. Domestic abuse. A number. She just needs someone to speak for her. That is advocacy. Speaking for someone. Being on someone’s side when the rest of the world is against them.

This kind of reminds me of Jesus. I have been watching Francis Chan's Basic Series, and I just watched the 2nd one the other day. It was about Following Jesus. I point made is that often we claim to be Christian, but we don't actually do what Jesus did. When Jesus came and made disciples, he went to some guys and said, come be like me. Then, when they learned how to be like him, he sent them out and told them to make others to be like him as well. This is what following Jesus looks like. It looks like him. 

One thing I consistently see Jesus doing in the Bible is speaking up for those that everyone else despises. From the prostituted women they were going to stone, to the blind men calling out his name and were being hushed, then finally on the cross. There were two beggars be crucified next to Jesus. The crowds rallied around, hurling insults at the Lord and one thieve chimed in on the rants. He said, "Yeah, if you are God, save yourself, and us too." 

However, the other thieve rebuked the first, "Leave him alone. Don't you see he's innocent?" Then he addressed Jesus, "Lord, remember me when you go into your kingdom." 

And Jesus said, "I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." 

This man, on the the cross with Jesus, had a past. They didn't usually just crucify people for no reason. It was punishment to the highest degree of torture. You don't just send a person to die that way. However, regardless of his past, Jesus said to him, "You will be with me." Jesus advocated on behalf of this man, gracing him with an eternal home in paradise. 

And the Lord does the same for us. All of us have muddy pasts where we have hurt someone and committed wrong. Whether we did something that deserves crucifixion or not, Jesus speaks on our behalf, intercedes for us that we may also know the eternal glory of a home in paradise. That is the beauty of grace. The entire essence of the Gospel.

How much more can we intercede on behalf of a single mom who life has hit hard to secure for her an apartment in the present. It is not enough to merely have a relationship with the Lord, it must be lived out and reflected in our interactions with others. This is the art of perpendicular living. Where we take our relationship with the Lord above, and spread it out among those around us. 

Today is Lenten Friday. Purpose of the day: Reflect on the Lord's advocacy for me, that he intercedes on my behalf. How much more should I intercede on behalf of others.